The inventive concepts herein relate to a semiconductor memory, and in particular, to a nonvolatile memory device and an operating method thereof.
Storage devices may be referred to as any devices which store data under control of a host device such as a computer, a smart phone, a smart pad, or the like. Hard disk drives (HDD) are storage devices capable of storing data on a magnetic disk. Solid state drives (SSD), memory cards, or the like, are examples of storage devices capable of storing data in semiconductor memory, in particular nonvolatile memory.
Examples of nonvolatile memory include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory devices, phase-change RAM (PRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), resistive RAM (RRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), or the like.
The operating speed of a host device such as a computer, a smart phone, a smart pad, or the like that communicates with a storage device continues to improve as semiconductor manufacturing technologies develop. The volume of content used in storage devices and used by host devices continues to increase. For these reasons, the demand for storage devices with improved operating speed has continuously trended upward.
As semiconductor manufacturing technologies develop, the degree of integration and the volume of the storage devices continue to increase. Such high integration makes it possible to reduce manufacturing cost of storage devices. However, the high degree of integration has necessitated the scaling-down and structural changes of storage devices. As a result, various new issues and problems have arisen that damage data stored in storage devices, thereby lowering storage device reliability. Methods and devices capable of improving reliability of storage devices are sought.